This is a perfect summer main course or starter dish. The combination of the tomatoes cooked with the sweet scallops and monkfish with a few capers is delicious. The samphire and fennel salad has a interesting texture and flavour and work well together because the fennel softens the saltiness of the samphire. Try this dish with a chilled glass of Fiano di Avellino - it will be amazing. Have a fantastic weekend.
Ingredients - serves two
4x large Scallops ( large Scottish ones that have just been taken out of the shell)
4x 3cm slices of trimmed Monk fish
2 long stems of rosemary
100g Datterini tomatoes ( cut into 1/4s)
1x tblsp of miniature capers
1x tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1 clove of garlic finely sliced
Method
Take the rosemary bunches and strip off the leaves so there is just a clump of leaves on the top of the stick. Push the rosemary through the middle of the monkfish then do the same with the scallop. Repeat this so you have 2 Scallops and 2 pieces of monkfish on each stick.
Heat a heavy based frying pan. Season the Monk fish and Scallop on rosemary sticks with salt and pepper then rub olive oil on top. Place them in the hot pan and cook for 2 mins. Turn them over and at that point scatter the garlic tomatoes parsley capers into the pan and turn the heat off and place a lid on top of the pan. This will act like an oven and the fish will cook with the residual heat. Leave for 5 mins.
To make the salad you will need 150g of fresh Samphire that has been blanched in unsalted boiling water until it is tender. Drain and then mix together with 1 head of fennel that has been finely cut on a mandolin. Add a good dash of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
Take the lid of the pan and remove the Monk fish and Scallop stick and place it on a warm plate. In the pan there will be some cooking juices from the Monk fish and Scallop along with the cooked tomatoes and capers. Add a dash of oil and mix the juices together so the sauce starts to emoulsify and pour over the Monk fish and Scallop sticks. Serve with the Samphire and Fennel salad on the same plate.